pbs_idea_channelfandomcom-20200214-history
Are LOLCats and Internet Memes Art?
>> MIKE: Here’s an idea: Anyone who has ever made a LOLCat has also made a work of art. music So chances are if you’ve made it this far on the internet, you’ve probably seen an internet meme. They take tons of different forms: funny pictures of cats, dogs giving advice, people wearing sunglasses, sad guys, happy guys, superheros, chickens, mermaids, Leroy Jenkins... Leroy! If as if there are over nine thou- Eh, old meme is old. And anyone can do it. Just go online to some quick meme generator thing, fill in some of your personal experience, blam, you got a meme. But wait, people are creating images and sharing them with strangers for the purpose of communicating their personal experiences? That, my friends, is art, plain and simple. Okay, we understand that meme makers would probably refuse the title of artist. They’re a very modest bunch... But some of history’s biggest thinkers might take one look at Socially Awkward Penguin and say: Art. For instance, literary giant Leo Tolstoy say the following... … ...This is the activity of art. He didn’t know it, but Tolstoy was writing about internet culture. And on top of that, Aristotle talked about the artist planning and then executing an act of catharsis. Fuhhhhhh... And if there’s anything that this stuff is, it’s cathartic. User generated culture is of like Andy Warhol’s factory in hyper drive. It’s a high speed collaboration between people recombining popular media, advertising, everything into new forms. And the art exists almost entirely independently of any “artist.” The originator is almost a novelty. So we have Tolstoy, Aristotle, and Warhol on our side. Of course there will be some people disagree... Philosophers Immanuel Kant and David Hume might say that internet memes don’t count as art because they’re not “beautiful.” I, for one, disagree. singing British historian R.G. Collingwood might say that internet memes are the performance of emotion and not its true expression, making meme makers ranters and ravers and not actual artists. That actually makes some sense... There may be a hundred reasons both for and against, but what’s exciting is that this is a body of work produced collaboratively by tens, maybe hundreds, of thousands of people across the globe. Anyone can get involved. That’s something we’ve never seen before. That’s pretty astounding. What do you guys think? Do you think internet memes are works of art? Let us know in the comments. And don’t forget to subscribe, it’s right there. Heyyyyyyy- There were a lot of comments on the Lana and Miku video. Let’s see what you guys had to say: People clearly find Miku Hatsune to be the more authentic pop star. A lot of people commented that they don’t even know who Lana Del Rey is... snowedkami makes a really good point about the labor that goes into performing on stage. Charonchan makes a really good case for Miku’s realness based upon the realness of the people who create her. DINGOlord makes a really awesome comparison between Miku and the animated pop super group Gorillaz. pooton wants to know where get our ideas from... Mostly our work is fueled by coffee and sugary snacks, but we also want to hear some of your ideas. What do you guys want to see a show about? Send us an email, there’s a link in the description. And to our friend Jonathan Holmes at Distructoid... You’re welcome. Category:English Category:Complete